February 1, 2022

Dear Donald,

Thank you for your letter. Here's my interpretation of Reinhold's plans regarding the translation of "Verstreut über alle fünf Kontinente": It's not on the top of his list of priorities, which are, as I interpret his letter, in descending order: 1) his own health, 2) a trip to Jordan in the middle of a pandemic, 3) the memoirs which he has been writing about his own life, 4) a biography of Ron Goldman on which he has been working and then 5) if nothing else intervenes, perhaps the English version of the Rosenthal story. I suspect that Reinhold's priorities, like the priorities that each one of us entertains, are subject to change. I would not be surprised to receive an e-mail from Reinhold asking me to proceed with the translation, but can venture no guess whether that might happen next week, next month, next year, or after what's left of me has been cremated.

From my perspective, several issues require consideration.  1) If the copyright notice in "Verstreut über alle fünf Kontinente" means what it says, then a translation requires not only Reinhold's but also the publisher's permission. Possibly the publisher would make his consent contingent on his publishing the translation and being paid for doing so.  Possibly the copyright notice is unenforceable and need not be complied with. I don't know.  2) Reinhold's composition of the Rosenthal book by soliciting and assembling texts, memoirs from all Rosenthal descendants willing to contribute, resulted in a literary bouillabaisse such as would never have occurred to me, a style to which I as translator would need to learn to do justice.  I am open minded, and willing to try. I consider myself to be flexible. Since Nathaniel and Sabine have been cooking for me, I have been happily slurping highly spiced exotic potpourri soups whose constituents I would be hard put to identify. I expect to leave the stylistic issues ensuing from my translation to my editor, be he Reinhold or perhaps even yourself.

3) If I am to translate the book, I need an editor not only to negotiate the stylistic, esthetic issues entailed in translation of a literary mixture, but as I see it, far more important, to protect the translated book and its readers from the pathetic fatalism with which I am afflicted, which would otherwise unavoidably cast its shadow over my efforts. Forgive me for saying so: thinking about our Rosenthal family makes me not proud, but sad.

Best wishes to Jan and to yourself.

Jochen